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University student union takes a walk on the ‘controversial’ side over Lou Reed song

The 1972 hit ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ was called ‘transphobic’ by the University of Guelph student association, which apologized for playing the song on campus.

Lou Reed, seen here in 2000, wrote 'Walk on the Wild Side' about his transgender actress friends. The song was recently criticized for being transphobic by a Guelph student group. (MONIKA ZAUGG / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO)

The student union at the University of Guelph has gained international attention — much of it negative — for criticizing the classic rock song “Walk on the Wild Side” as “transphobic.”

The university’s Central Student Association apologized via social media for playing Lou Reed’s 1972 hit at a campus event.

“It’s come to our attention that the playlist we had . . . on Thursday contained a song with transphobic lyrics,” the student association said in a May 12 Facebook post that has since been deleted.

“We now know the lyrics to this song are hurtful to our friends in the trans community and we’d like to unreservedly apologize for this error in judgement (sic).”

The student association said the person who selected the song for the playlist did not “know or understand” the lyrics, which include the lines, “Holly came from Miami F.L.A. . . . Plucked her eyebrows on the way, shaved her legs and then he was a she. She said, ‘Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side.’”

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In the days since the statement was posted, news outlets around the world have picked up the story. Friends, colleagues and biographers of Reed have come to the late singer-songwriter’s defence.

“The song was a love song to all the people he knew and to New York City by a man who supported the community and the city his whole life,” said Reed’s former producer Hal Willner in an interview with the Guardian.

Howard Sounes, author of Notes from the Velvet Underground: The Life of Lou Reed, told the Star that Reed “cannot fairly be accused” of being transphobic.

“Lou Reed was a difficult and sometimes unpleasant person, but transphobic he was not,” Sounes said. “Reed was a bisexual who had close friendships, and conducted love affairs with, (transgender) men.”

In the mid-1970s, Reed was in what was essentially a marriage with a transgender person who went by both Ricky and Rachel, Sounes added.

“Lou loved Ricky/ Rachel, and was very public about their relationship at a time when such things were considered extremely outré . . . He was in love with transgender people. He found them exciting — sexually and intellectually — and he celebrated them in his work.”

On “Overheard at Guelph,” a popular Facebook group for students and alumni of the university, reaction to the student association’s statement was mixed.

“(They) literally found a pro-trans song to be transphobic because it implied being trans is uncommon/unusual. Look at when the song was written for a little perspective,” wrote one user.

“If the biggest controversy is that the (student association) apologized for a song being transphobic and then it turned out it wasn’t — that's basically fine,” wrote another. “Good on them for trying to be accountable, even if they got it wrong.”

The University of Guelph student association did not immediately respond to the Star’s request for comment on Monday.

Reed, who died in 2013 at age 71, rose to fame in the 1960s as a leading member of the Velvet Underground, one-time house band at Andy Warhol’s studio.

After leaving the group, Reed wrote “Walk on the Wild Side” inspired largely by Holly Woodlawn and Candy Darling, transgender women who starred in Warhol’s films.

“Holly is the guy from Miami who hitchhikes to New York, shaving his legs on the way,” Sounes said. “I interviewed Holly in New York for my book . . . shortly before (she) died recently. Holly loved ‘Walk on the Wild Side.’”

In a 2016 article about Reed for New York magazine’s entertainment blog Vulture, music critic Bill Wyman said much of Reed’s work centred on “the experience of the unwanted and the despised. Some of the words we have today — bullied, gay, trans — didn’t really exist as such back then.”

In his piece, Wyman singled out Reed’s compositions “Sister Ray” and “Sweet Jane” as examples of bringing transgender stories to mainstream music.

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